Last time I bought these I never saw if they hatched or not. This year I know for a fact that my mantis hatched because I took pictures of it this morning. So beautiful!! The first shows them this morning and the second shows them later in the day after they've browned up.

Unfortunately Shoe they do. There is enough for about 10 egg cases (or more!) Good for them but bad for my plants. The condo has a habit of wiping out the good bugs but fortunately I'm going to the board about it before Spring.

I can explain that Cinda. I live in NW Washington and unlike the rest of the world, we've been experience Fall-like temps here this Summer. We do have bouts of warm temperatures but not consistent enough for the egg case. The last few weeks have been perfect for it though.

Unfortunately we had a wind storm the day after they hatched and I can only find a couple. I hope they are just really good hiders or blew down to the rose bushes without getting hurt.

gardengus, I collect mantis egg cases along the woods line. When the weather is cool they won't hatch out. If it starts to heat up too early I store a few in the fridge to keep them from hatching, then pull them out as needed. (Hence the time they hatched on the kitchen counter. I forgot to take it outside!) :>)

I was wondering if one could store them in the frig , that info is very helpful. I collected over 20 this spring while cleaning the garden and would have liked to share them but April was a bit early for my gardening friends to come over.

I think a wind storm is a good thing because they should be widely dispersed , they eat each other.

Would love to try to hatch some eggs. What do you look for? I was told I had a praying manthis pod (whatever they are called). I was told to put it in a milk jug with lots os holes, cover and keep cool. Low and behold when it hatched I was scared and yet surprised.From the side it looked like I had a huge spider, but It was a "Lunar Moth" I was told. I cut the jug opene and left it outside on the deck in a protected area. A few days later I had this beautiful moth. I will see if I can find a picture to attatch. Could someone attach a pciture of the egg sack so I know what to look for and where and when should I start looking? Do they eat only aphids and mosquitos? Please hlep me.

Mantis are opportunist and will eat any thing they can catch( the good the bad and the ugly) , I have even read and seen photos of them with hummingbirds.
They will eat each other and I have seen that on a few occasions.

I have the large green type mantis in my garden , but there are other types.
The one above is from a garden I tend ,it is grey/brown and only gets about half the size of the green ones .
I can not seem to find a photo of the egg case for this one but it is usually laid on a flat surface wood or wall and is about 1-11/2''long and flat and grey in color.

Thank you everyone. So now that I hear they eat Hummingbirds, I am not going to go out of my way to bring any into my gardens. I definately will go to the web and do some research on my own. I know there are a lot of knowledgeable people on this site and thought I would learn from experienced gardners. If they get here on their own, I will let nature take its coarse. But, I too love Hummingbirds and have several. Thanks again everyone. Nice pictures and useful information. Would not mind the mosquitos being eaten, and I do not want any BATS!

I feel the same. While I realize that everything has to eat, I put out my feeder for hummers, not for mantids. Lets say that when a mantid starts staking out my feeder, he doesn't live to tell about it